The 2010 Twice List: Films So Nice We Had to See Them, Oh, You Know ...

Frankly, this is not the scene between Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman that most male Black Swan viewers are returning to see for a second time.

With the holidays and a biblical deluge descending upon the City of Angels, Hollywood feels so much like a deserted back lot set that you half expect to see stray agents caught in a bramble of tumbleweeds. Which means now would normally be the perfect time to sit back, take stock of the state of cinema, and pump out a “Best Of 2010” film list. But with critics from Manohla Dargis to Kris Tapley shirking their annual 10-best duties in favor of more innovative approaches (our favorite is former Little Gold Man Mark Lisanti’s Best Of List/Drinking Game), I’ve decided to go a different way as well.

Considering the ever-skyrocketing price of movie tickets—elevated further by the occasional 3-D excise tax—the decision to see a movie twice counts as a substantial endoresement. So here, in no particular order, are the movies that, for whatever reason, I simply had to see twice this year, no matter how much of the family jewelry I had to pawn to do so.The Social Network. You had to see The Social Network at least twice, if only to catch all those Aaron Sorkin verbal lightning bolts you missed the first time. In fact, the easiest way to impress colleagues at the water cooler was to pepper conversation with such misanthropic bon mots as “You better up lawyer up, asshole”; “Did I adequately answer your condescending question?”; and the new break-up line du jour: “Dating you is like dating a StairMaster.”

Unstoppable. Catching A.D.D. action-auteur Tony Scott at the top of his game was worth a second viewing. I won’t pretend this film profoundly affected my understanding of the human condition—though it did answer the age-old question of how best to atomize a horse trailer. Sometimes you need to take a break from profound meditation and watch a runaway train blow things up—and Tony Scott knows how to make a fireball pretty enough to watch twice. Before you judge, let me ask: How many times have you seen Speed?

Inside Job. If you have any desire to know how exactly Wall Street brought us all to the brink of financial apocalypse, you will find no more informative and entertaining documentary than Inside Job. The beauty of the filmmaking is that it gives a clear sense of the complex monetary cogs that spun out of control in 2008—no mean feat, considering that it was exactly this confusion that was responsible for bringing down financial hydras like Lehman Brothers and A.I.G. You may not need to see this film more than once to understand it, but you will want to see it twice to appreciate it, and then maybe pick up The Communist Manifesto.

Black Swan. Watching Natalie Portman’s physically daunting, emotionally distressing, and literally skin-crawling performance bears the pleasure of endless repeated viewings. While dance aficionados may consider it more Red Shoe Diaries than The Red Shoes, this was the most fun I had in the theater all year. Slyly baroque, horrifically grand, and beautifully grungy, Black Swan is the kind of aggressive yet graceful filmmaking that kicks you upside the head with a grand jete and smiles while doing so.

True Grit. On a subtler note True Grit brought me back out of curiosity at this departure from the Coens’ usual caustic comedies. As possibly the pre-eminent American filmmakers of the moment, the Coens almost always deserve a second viewing. However, whereas the second time around usually highlights wry jokes you may have missed, True Grit’s finish reveals an austere soulfulness, particularly in Rooster Cogburn’s last line and Mattie Ross’ closing soliloquy. Although they cunningly labeled it a “corny” young adult adventure movie, the dynamic duo of existential irony managed to sneak something into this film that you don’t often associate with them, or the multiplex: poetry.

Inception. This mental rollercoaster of a blockbuster drew me back to make sure I actually understood it the first time. Turns out I probably did. Which left me to ponder Marion Cotillard’s flawless face and psycho-dreamy eyes. Who wouldn’t mind being trapped in a crumbling city on the edge of forever with her?

The King’s Speech. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush make an entirely affecting and endlessly entertaining odd couple—Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau with classier accents. Catching this film a second time is a no-brainer, especially considering it’s probably the best family/crowd-pleasing option for a Christmas day-trip to the theater, no matter how many “fucks” away it is from a PG-13 rating. It may be an oft-used and over-awarded combination, but Nazis, kings, and costumes haven’t felt this fresh in a long time.

Carlos. Considering this terrorist rock-epic clocks in at five hours, seeing it again is kind of like committing to a long-distance relationship: initially intimidating, but with the promise of immense rewards. Edgar Ramirez’s charisma as a narcissistic Che-wannabe and Olivier Assayas’ assured, masterful direction make this film well worth giving up a half day of your life. On many levels the most audacious film of the year, Carlos may also have the most to say about our modern world’s obsession with celebrity and how we mistake boldness for skill, fame for meaning, and terrorists for anything but recognizably human.